JASPER - The Indiana State Police and Jasper City Police Department are investigating several counterfeit checks being passed and cashed.

A group of Hispanic males began visiting area convenience and grocery stores and cashing fraudulent checks in mid-February. The checks appear to be from legitimate businesses, but those firms have no record of them.

All of the checks so far have been made for amounts just under $500 and have been made payable to different individuals.

TELL CITY - Sunny Days Preschool, located in Baby Bloomers Childcare, 1049 12th St., is accepting enrollments for the 2010-11 school year.

A 4- and 5-year-old class will be from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday and a 3-year-old class will be from 12:30 from 2 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. Children must be 3, 4 or 5 by Aug. 1, 2010, and potty trained.

Sunny Days has planned and prepared to ready children for the world of learning. Both classes will encourage children to explore; make new friends and introduce numbers, shapes, colors and field trips.

PERRY COUNTY - A candidate for sheriff arrested last month for allegedly operating a vehicle while intoxicated has resumed his campaign and said Monday he has found overwhelming support for his decision to stay in the race.

"Nearly everyone - I'd say 98 percent of the people I've talked to or who have come up and spoken with me - want me to stay in. That's what I'm going to do," Joe Lackey said Monday. "I'm not a quitter. I'm in this until the end."

PERRY COUNTY - A Perry County man in prison for life will be resentenced under an order issued from the state's high court.

In a decision published March 22, The Indiana Supreme Court said Kyle S. Kiplinger should not have received a life sentence because the jury that convicted him could not unanimously agree on a sentencing recommendation.

The court did not overturn the 2008 murder conviction against Kiplinger, only his sentence.

TELL CITY - Two grants worth a combined $72,853 will allow Tell City to retrofit its two Main Street traffic-control signals and upgrade lighting in City Hall and two buildings used by its electric utility.

Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman announced Tuesday that 46 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants were awarded to 34 Indiana cities, towns and counties for energy-efficiency upgrades to public facilities. A total of $3.35 million was awarded for upgrades, including LED traffic-light conversions, building-lighting upgrades and nonlighting building retrofits.

PERRY COUNTY - Perry County's commissioners will offer for sale at a public auction April 16 several properties with prices starting at $50, according to County Auditor Connie Berger.

The plots belong to owners who are severely delinquent in the payment of property taxes. The News reported Feb. 8 that legislation adopted three years ago could help move tax-delinquent properties back onto tax rolls by disposing of tracts without the county having to take ownership of them.

CANNELTON - Cannelton Mayor Smokey Graves said after a city council meeting March 24 he'd talked to a member of U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar's staff earlier in the day and hopes to hear by mid-April about financial help to get the city's floodwall recertified.

As The News reported in February 2009, the Federal Emergency Management Agency mandated that the floodwall be accredited within two years. An inspection toward that purpose would cost $210,000 and the city would have to pay to fix any problems it reveals.

TELL CITY - Tell City-Troy Township School Board members accepted a recommendation from the Veazey, Parrott and Shoulders architectural firm Tuesday and voted to hire Weddle Brothers Construction Co. of Evansville to renovate and add to a media center at Tell City Junior-Senior High School.